Posted
by
kdawson
on Saturday August 02, 2008 @05:45PM
from the eyes-just-like-a-laser-beam dept.

A year ago we took note when Brian May, guitarist for Queen for the last 30 years, submitted his thesis for a Ph.D. in astrophysics. The news now is that the thesis has been published. You, too, can read all about the population of tiny asteroids and space dust that cause the Zodiacal light. The completed thesis appears as the book "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" (Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd., 2008), available at Amazon for $71.96. May was awarded his Ph.D. last summer and accepted a position as chancellor at a British university in November.

He was bloody lucky. I got my PhD from York University (England), and they got so pissed off with people taking ages to write up and submit that they issued a decree that you must submit within 4 years of starting.

He was bloody lucky. I got my PhD from York University (England), and they got so pissed off with people taking ages to write up and submit that they issued a decree that you must submit within 4 years of starting.

You must have been the rejected 5th Beatle I take it? What credible University would turn down Brian May and call him lame for leaving his post-graduate work to persue and help supplant QUEEN as rock legends?

Authors usually don't choose those prices, and a price like that generally reflects a low confidence that anyone besides libraries will purchase this work. In this case it seems like a strategic error; I bet there's a huge market for this among fans of his music if it were say $25. But I don't see how that market can be very large at this price point. I suppose once they notice interest in it they might consider releasing it in paperback. But a $71 price tag is generally not something an author wants to

And this my friends, is the part of the reason why nobody in his right mind busts his hump to participate in science/engineering/mathematical scholarship--and why we have way too many lawyers.

With very, very few exceptions, you really would have to be at least a little psychotic to want to become an engineer, chemist, physicist, etc. given: the rewards most people reap in these fields of study, the expenditure of money, time and the discipline required to reach competency in your own little niche.

It's actually up for free on the web - anyone can download it and print it. I want a nice, bounded copy. The $200 that I initially paid includes the cost for bounded copies for the school's library, but if I want one for myself I have to either pay them, or pay someone else to do it (I heard from others that it won't look the same or as good as the original).

Someone else mentioned Milo.
Brian Cox is probably the most hard-core. He used to be the keyboard player in Dare and D:ream and once got into a bar fight with Jimmy Page. He is now a full-on professor of physics.
But you're kinda right. It's actually more common for scientists to be classical or jazz musicians.

Someone else mentioned Milo.
Brian Cox is probably the most hard-core. He used to be the keyboard player in Dare and D:ream and once got into a bar fight with Jimmy Page. He is now a full-on professor of physics.
But you're kinda right. It's actually more common for scientists to be classical or jazz musicians.

How he managed to have that long actor career and be Captain O'Hagan of Super Troopers is still a mystery.

Is called '39 [queenwords.com] and it's really beautiful. It's about an astronaut leaving Earth and coming back a year later to meet the daughter of him and his deceased love - a hundred years has passed on Earth in the mean time, see twin paradox.

It's on A night at the opera, you might as well purchase the whole album. It Will Be Worth It.

Space isn't quite a vacuum. There is a very sparse gas, through which the solar wind blows; doesn't really matter for interplanetary navigation as it's not really under pressure, so you don't need much force to break through.

That actually raises an interesting question on the side, namely
what is the lowest density of matter required for sound wave
propagation? Presumably (IANAP so please correct me if I'm wrong)
if the density is only a few particles per unit of space, then it
becomes very unlikely that a single oscillating particle can transmit
an excess energy quantum to the closest (but far away) neighbour. There must therefore exist a critical
percolation density below which a sound wave cannot propagate.

It's more common than you'd think. For example, it is a little known fact that Ms Spears is an expert in semiconductor physics [britneyspears.ac]. And the president himself knows a few things about high energy physics [theonion.com].

He isn't going to publish it on a public source because he isfollowing the advice of everyone on Slashdot and adding some form ofvalue added feature to his music. At $71 a print he can make enoughmoney to support his touring habit and get all the money that thelabels never paid out from their lawsuits-to-protect-the-artists.

Think of it as a very expensive tour shirt except that has a lot moretext on it and you can't get it on a tour./end insane_justification

It is most annoying to see people trying to make money from their theses, especially as almost nobody actually succeeds in doing so. In many cases a thesis is written using tax money, and in all cases the purpose of the thesis is to advance scientific knowledge. So why try to stop people reading it?

The only reason I can see is that a thesis is often not very good, and if you publish it on the web, this will be obvious to anyone who cares to look. Whereas if someone has to go to the British Library or buy it

Was one of the best concerts I've been to. I am too young to have seen Queen in concert, much to my huge disappointment. They're easily my favourite band, so when I found out he was playing (at some divey bar miles out in the boondocks), I jumped at the chance along with a couple mates.

He was an awesome performer and I am really hoping he comes back again.

If there's a band you love, don't pass up on the chance to see them live - before it's too late!

Not a musician, but Mayim Bialik ("Blossom") got her PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA last year. She's still working as an actress, too - mostly voice work in cartoons and guest appearances. As a theater major getting a science PhD, I keep an eye out for these types, they're definitely inspirational.:)

Not a musician, but Mayim Bialik ("Blossom") got her PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA last year. She's still working as an actress, too - mostly voice work in cartoons and guest appearances. As a theater major getting a science PhD, I keep an eye out for these types, they're definitely inspirational.:)

-First and foremost, Queen is arguably the most successful and ignored band in the United States. Yes, they own the Rock Anthem chart and "we are the champions" is played to death at every major sporting event (C'mon, can't they try "February stars" by the Foo Fighters at the super bowl? just once? ), but in terms of album sales? Queen is so far down the list it's pathetic. Their worldwide sales were disproportionate to their US sales from 1975-ish on. O

-First and foremost, Queen is arguably the most successful and ignored band in the United States. Yes, they own the Rock Anthem chart and "we are the champions" is played to death at every major sporting event (C'mon, can't they try "February stars" by the Foo Fighters at the super bowl? just once? ), but in terms of album sales? Queen is so far down the list it's pathetic. Their worldwide sales were disproportionate to their US sales from 1975-ish on. Once glam rock died out, Queen all but disappeared from US charts. From about 84 on they still ruled the rock charts in Europe, but they never toured the US after 1982. As the "Home of rock and roll", i'd say that says something.

-Solo success. I own Brian May's first post-queen solo album and I'm probably one of the 15 people in the US that does. He's a helluva guitar player (especially considering he and his father *built* his trademark guitar from a discarded fireplace mantle) but if you ask people to name the ten greatest guitar players of all time, I'd bet huge....tracts of land that you probably wouldn't get close to hearing his name. There are plenty of other "name" guitarists out there. He just doesn't have the cult of personality that Clapton, Page, Vaughn or Hendrix have. Heck, He doesn't have the following of Satriani or even Yngwie.

He's one of the greats, but he's definitely not one of the best known. You've really got to know your guitar Gods to throw May's name out there.

I know what you're saying, but if over 300 Million world-wide sales doesn't get you noticed in the States as pivotal in music then nothing will.

One of rock's most successful, influential and popular acts, the band has released a total of eighteen number one albums, eighteen number one singles, and ten number one DVDs worldwide making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. Their total album sales have been estimated at over 300 million worldwide[76] including 32.5 million in the United States[77] alone as of 2004. The band is also the only group in which every member has composed more than one chart-topping single.[78]

Brian May is an extremely skilled songwriter. The reason he isn't mentioned in the same breath as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Yngwie Malmsteen, Satriani, Vai, etc... is that he simply does not have the technical skills to stand next to them.

That's not news. PhD's are ten a penny and I see no reason to assume that rock legends are less intelligent than the rest of us. It's like those news stories that make a big deal of educated women. "And she has a degree in Mathematics - ooh, aah!"

Now a PhD becoming a rock legend on the other hand. That would be news! Becoming a rock legend is not an ordinary everyday occurrence.

I moved from Ireland to California to work at a company called myplay.com and later moved to Napster. Now I'm at imeem.com

I still entertain some deep down belief that one day I might return to astrophysics and submit my thesis, maybe if one of these internet music companies finally make me some money.

(of course, even if I stopped work tomorrow I now have young kids to take care of...)

You may know Astrophysics, Quarks, Blackholes and more, but you'd think it's very simple to figure out which companies make money off of music via the Internet. Give me an A! Give me a P! Give me another P! Give me a L! Give me an E! What's that spell? MONEY.

Besides there are quite a few Astrophysicists, including former SETI folks that work at Apple so you won't be the only one orbiting the campus.